Saturday, March 11, 2006

[Kings] .500

Who would have thought of it?

A banished barbarian saved the Kings' season, and probably his and Sacramento's basketball future.

"When I got here, this team didn't have a lot of confidence," Artest said. "Everybody is on the same page, (and) now our record is showing it. I feel like I was only a part of everything. We're going through everything together and really making a push."

...

"When you look at the team since we made the trade, we were in games, but we just couldn't get over the hump," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "The team's really getting accustomed to what we've got to do to win. We think we can beat anybody at this point. ... There's expectations for us now, and that's a good thing. When there's no expectations, it's no fun. It's drudgery."